Sanitary Lid for Teakettle

1916

Safety Device That Prevents Burns When Refilling.

Many a housewife has sustained a bad burn from lifting the hot lid of the kettle she was attempting to refill. A teakettle lid has been invented which will render this impossible. The lid has an automatic valve in the center which opens as the flow of water is turned upon it and closes when the water is shut off. This valve is at the bottom of a depression in the lid, and the concave thus formed is a convenient place to set a cup or other small vessel containing butter to be melted or other ingredients requiring gentle heat. The lid is of aluminum, thoroly sanitary and indorsed by the cooking experts who have seen it.



Chickens and Electricity

1916

By treating young chickens with high frequency, high voltage currents of electricity a London experimenter has made them grow more rapidly than those of the same age reared without the treatment.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 9.

Joy For The Men at Tea

1917

Some Good Samaritan Has Invented Oval Saucer That Safely Holds Cup and Dainties

Any man who knows that, sooner or later, he must go to another afternoon tea cannot but rejoice at the recent invention of an oval, platterlike saucer large enough to hold with ease a cup, a lettuce or other sandwich, and a dainty trifle of pastry. The thing was needed, the modesty of the anonymous inventor — evidently not Mr. Edison — reveals him one of the large body of occasional and unwilling tea-goers.

We, the reluctant and unwilling, are all strangely alike at these functions and we have all been embarrassed by the old-fashioned saucer. Circular in shape, and hardly larger than the cup that belies its reputation and dances drunkenly whenever another guest joggles our elbow (which happens so often that we suspect conspiracy), the old-fashioned saucer affords no reasonably secure perch for a sandwich; responds with instant delight to the law of gravitation if left to itself; and sets us wishing, those of us who think scientifically, that evolution had refrained from doing away with an extension by which alone we could now hope to manage it. We mean a tail!

If afternoon teas had been started in the Oligocene epoch instead of the seventeenth century, we are convinced that evolution, far from discarding this useful appendage, would have perfected it. A little hand would have evolved at the end of it, such a little hand as might hold his saucer while a gentleman sips from his teacup. — Atlantic Magazine.

Peculiar Possessions and Collections

1900

Many people make collections of articles more or less interesting, but possibly few go in for such bulky objects as those chosen by a gentleman of Pontefract, in the north of England. Old doors are the object of his desire and he has a most curious collection. His doors come from old houses, castles and abbeys that have some historical interest. Household Words is responsible for the statement that not long ago he offered as much as five thousand dollars for a door through which, during the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette, Charlotte Corday, Danton and Robespierre passed to the guillotine.

Not quite as interesting in a general sense, but in all probability of quite as much interest to the collector, was a curious collection of corks owned by a Frenchman who died a few years ago at Paris. A fairly good history of his life was to be read on these corks, for he saved every one drawn for the delectation of himself or his friends, and on each he inscribed the date and particular occasion upon which the bottle was opened.

Probably nobody of to-day has a strong desire to bring together a great variety of teas and snuffs. Lord Petersham, however, a noted dandy in his day, had a hobby for collecting various kinds of tea and snuff. All round his sitting-room were shelves, on the one side laden with canisters of Souchong, Bohea, Congou, Pekoe, Russian and other teas, and on the other bearing handsome jars containing every kind of snuff the collector could lay his hands on.

Queen Margherita of Italy is the owner of a curious collection, one that has in it the interest of association. It comprises the foot- and head-gear of royal and imperial personages of different periods. It is said to embrace a sandal worn by the tyrant Nero, a pair of white slippers which belonged to Mary Queen of Scots, shoes worn by Queen Anne and the Empress Josephine, and gloves that were once the property of Marie Antoinette. — Youth's Companion.

Engagement is Announced at Tea Party

Ohio, 1918

Miss Marguerite Moyer of Bellefontaine avenue entertained a coterie of her intimate friends at her home Tuesday evening at 6 o'clock tea. The table was attractively decorated in a color scheme of pink and white, and during the last course the announcement of the engagement of Miss Zada Moyer, sister of the hostess and Mr. Mitchell B. Hissong, of Detroit, Mich., was made. The announcement came as a complete surprise and the bride elect was showered with congratulations.

The wedding will be an event of October. The girls enjoying the evening were: Misses Berda Smith, Clara McPherron, Ruth Remagen, Kathleen Neff, Esther Roberts, Mary Tyhurst, Mrs. Howard Courtney, Mrs. Clifford Slater, Miss Lura Bateson, Mrs. Albert Stump, Miss Zada Moyer and the hostess Marguerite Moyer.

—The Lima Daily News, Lima, Ohio, Sept. 18, 1918, p. 2.

In an African Market Place

1884

An African market, with so many commodities to sell and so many eager sellers and loungers, is a most animated scene. The din of voices may be heard afar off, and when you enter the great open square, where, under the shade of great trees, perhaps a thousand people are disposed in little chaffering groups around their heaps of wares, it is worse than the parrot-house at the Zoological Gardens.

The women are the keenest traders; they haggle and scream and expostulate, and chuckle aside over their bargains, while the hulking men lounge about in good-humored uselessness, or squat in rows stolidly smoking. Although the strife of tongue is great, few real quarrels occur. There is in most cases a chief of the market, perhaps an old Fetish man, who regulates all disputes, and who so heavily fines both litigants that all are chary of provoking his arbitration.

This babel lasts but one day, and then for the rest of the "week" or "fortnight" the market place is void and desolate; only the old wicker baskets, banana skins, corn-shucks, feathers and egg-shells remain to witness to the great assemblage which has taken place. Of such a kind is the great market near Isaugila, and there are similar gatherings at Manyanga, Lutete, and in proximity to most of Mr. Stanley's stations. — Johnson's Congo River.


A Zulu belle is like the proverbial prophet. She has not much on'er in her own country. — Chicago Sun.


1926:

If the amount of tea drunk in England in one year were held in one teapot it would require a vessel as high as the cross on St. Paul's Cathedral, and in proportions of a teapot that high. Four trains could race abreast through its spout.

Civil War Veterans Entertained at Tea

Oakland, California, 1921

Girls of '61-'65 and veterans of the Civil War were entertained at tea this afternoon by the fraternal service council, Sons and Daughters of Washington, at their quarters in the Pacific building. Charles Secombe and Felix Schreiber gave brief talks. A program of music was rendered by Miss Adelaide Jacobson and Clement F. Rowlands.

The following committees were in charge: Reception committee, Mrs. A. Lathrop, Mrs. E. M. Abell, Mrs. C. J. Snyder, Mrs. A. Robert, Miss Winifred MacCowan, Miss Gladys Snyder; program committee, Mrs. C. Sweeney, Mrs. Frances Wood, Mrs. M. Goebbels, Miss Mabel Hoffman, Miss Grace McCoy and Mrs. M. L. Allen.

A reception in compliment to the Grand Army of the Republic is being planned.

Dr. Aurelia Henry Rinehardt will be the principal speaker at the Memorial Day exercises in Chabot Hall, May 29.

—Oakland Tribune, Oakland, California, May 17, 1921, page 21.